HOUSING

House in multiple occupation - proposed manager unfit - housing authority entitled to refuse registration without considering imposition of conditionsReynolds v Brent London Borough Council: CA (Lord Woolf CJ, Lords Justice Mummery and Buxton): 4 December 2001The landlord applied to the local housing authority for registration of a house in multiple occupation which he wished to manage, pursuant to section 348 of the Housing Act 1985, as amended by the Housing Act 1996.

The authority refused the application on the ground that the landlord was not a fit and proper person for the purposes of section 348(1)(b).

The landlord appealed to the county court.

The judge accepted that the landlord was unfit but allowed the appeal on the ground that 'the proviso' in section 348(1)(d), which enabled the authority to impose conditions relating to the management of the premises, had not been considered.

The judge ordered the authority to register the house on terms that the landlord comply strictly with each and every requirement under the 1985 Act and the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

The authority appealed.Andrew Arden QC (instructed by Hodders) for the authority.

Timothy Frith (instructed by Straiton & Co) for the landlord.Held, allowing the appeal, that the power in section 348(1)(d) was exercisable only when registration had been granted and enabled the authority, where it was uncertain about the capabilities of the proposed manager but not to the extent of making a finding of unfitness, to register subject to conditions or, where the proposed manager was unfit, to permit registration subject to the substitution of a different manager; that section 348(1)(d) was not a 'proviso' to the rest of the subsection but a free-standing and separate provision and, therefore, a decision was not defective merely because section 348(1)(d) was not applied in a case which prima facie fell under section 348(1)(b); that, further, conditions which simply required the landlord to do that which he was already bound by statute to do did not fall within the category of 'conditions relating to the management of the house' contained in section 348(1)(d); and that an order would be substituted that the application for registration be approved subject to the appointment of a manager who was, and whose terms of appointment were, acceptable to the authority.